ST PAUL’S POST St Paul’s Province Weekly Newsletter: 48 18 September 2017 Our birthday girls Maire Murphy 23 September this week are: Moya O’Cleary 23 September Compassion changes everything. Compassion heals. Compassion mends the broken and restores what has been lost. Compassion draws together those who have been estranged or never even dreamed they were connected. Compassion pulls us out of ourselves and into the heart of another, placing us on holy ground where we instinctively take off our shoes and walk in reverence. Please continue to pray for: Srs Monica Higgins & Kathleen Shelly; Marguerita’s brother-in-law, Brendan; The funeral of Damian’s brother, Brendan Sister Dominica Lee and her sister, Betty; will take place at Anna Hainey’s brother, Danny; 11am, Tuesday 19 September Francis’ brother, Austin and her niece-in-law, Val McCartan. in Lytham News the from USA Sr Joanne Fahey celebrates her Saturday, September 9 Send us photos of your special occasions, so that your Sisters around the world can share in your celebration! Mother Mary Joseph: Update Eight MOTHER MARY JOSEPH AND FATHER BERNARD O’LOUGHLIN CP Elizabeth Prout may have known Fr Bernard O’Loughlin in Stone, for he entered the novitiate at Aston Hall in 1844. She would certainly have at least heard of him in Manchester, for he became Fr Gaudentius Rossi’s companion at a Mission in St Mary’s in May 1852. He had already been giving the Mission for the previous five days when his co-preacher collapsed with fever. At that point Fr Gaudentius had arrived to see Elizabeth Prout and Father Croskell before beginning a Mission in Rochdale and had called into St Mary’s to make a friendly call on his two Passionist brethren. St Mary’s priest, Fr Formby, was so concerned about his 400 confirmandi that he went all the way to Cotton to ask the Provincial to defer the Rochdale Mission so that Fr Gaudentius could instruct them before Bishop Turner arrived to confirm them on the following Sunday. Father Formby had another problem, too: he needed a schoolmistress for his girls’ school in Royton Street, Deansgate. Fr Gaudentius therefore arranged that from September 1852 Elizabeth Prout would supply that need. Father Bernard would certainly have heard of her in that context. It was in 1857, however, that their paths merged when Mother Mary Joseph personally arrived in Broadway, Worcestershire, where Fr Bernard had opened a school in 1851. Recognised by the Government Inspectorate as excellent, it had more than 100 children and needed a second teacher. Fr Bernard asked Mother Mary Joseph if she could supply one. She immediately went down to Broadway on 5-6 May 1857 and then, in October 1857, sent down Sister Francis de Sales Brennan to teach. They probably all hoped that Mother Mary Joseph would open a convent in Broadway but it was not to be. Sr Frances de Sales became ill with tuberculosis and had to leave Broadway. Next Mother Mary Joseph had to face the near-bankruptcy of her Congregation and its near suppression. As long as she was the superior of the one house at Levenshulme all went well. After the first Professions in 1854, however, Bishop Turner asked her to make a second foundation in Ashton-under-Lyne. The Levenshulme convent was placed under Sr Clare. Whenever Mother Mary Joseph asked her, Clare assured her that all was financially well. In 1857, however, a slump in the Lancashire cotton industry led the tradesmen to close on their debtors. Sr Clare had a debt of £200. The Congregation was in crisis. In August 1857 Bishop Turner gave Mother Mary Joseph £5 and his Blessing to quest in the Diocese of Salford but, since the people were out of work, they had nothing to give. Clare and three others left. On 24 November 1857, with the help of Fr Ignatius Spencer, Mother Mary Joseph and another Sister went to quest in Ireland. When they returned on 27 January 1858, they found that Sr Philomena, who had been left in charge, had used whatever money they had to pay for her outfit to join an enclosed order. On 10 May 1858 Sr Frances de Sales died. Canon Croskell withdrew from the Congregation’s affairs. Some of the Manchester clergy demanded its suppression. Then, on 2 July 1858, Fr Bernard arrived to preach the Sisters’ annual retreat and to receive the Vows of four novices. When he went to Fr Croskell for faculties, however, he heard that the Congregation was to be dissolved. Fr Bernard then went to see Bishop Turner. He decided to hold an investigation. Fr Croskell asked Fr Bernard to be present at it. It opened on 6 July 1858 and Mother Mary Joseph was exonerated on all charges. Bishop Turner was delighted and Fr Bernard received the novices’ Vows. Mother Mary Joseph wrote to another of her Passionist friends, Fr Salvian, telling him that Fr Bernard had done what no other could have done. … Next to Father Gaudentius, we must rank good Father Bernard. In 1873 it was the same Fr Bernard who, as Provincial, asked the Passionist General if the Sisters could wear the Passionist Sign. That was granted on 9 November 1874. On 15 November the Father General, Dominic Giacchini, wrote to Rev Mother Mary Margaret Chambers that he was sending her the Sign through Fr Bernard O’Loughlin, Mother Mary Joseph’s friend, good Father Bernard. Sister Dominic Savio (Hamer) CP (Cause of the Servant of God, Mother Mary Joseph of Jesus CP, in saeculo Elizabeth Prout), Convent Lodge, 19 East Beach, LYTHAM, Lancashire, UK, FY8 5EU .